In
summary the case law of the European Court of Human
Rights and of UK courts indicates that this article
imposes the following obligations upon states:



an
obligation upon states not to take life without
justification



an
obligation to establish a framework of laws
precautions, procedures and means of enforcement
which will, to the greatest extent reasonably
practicable, protect life. In the case of Osman
[1] it was stated that this obligation amounted
to:

"putting in place effective criminal
law provisions to deter the commission of
offences against the person backed up by law-enforcement
machinery for the prevention, supression and
sanctioning of breaches of such provisions"



an
obligation in certain well defined circumstances
to take preventative operational measures to
protect an individual whose life is at risk
from the criminal acts of another individual.



a
procedural obligation which includes the "minimum
requirement of a mechanism" so that the
circumstances of certain kinds of deaths will
be subject to "public and independent scrutiny".
In Osman the court said:

"
The nature and degree of scrutiny which satisfies
this minimum threshold must, in the Commission's
view, depend on the circumstances of the particular
case. There may be cases where the facts surrounding
a deprivation of life are clear and undisputed
and the subsequent inquisitorial examination
may legitimately be reduced to a minimum formality.
But equally, there may be other cases, where
a victim dies in circumstances which are unclear,
in which event the lack of any effective procedure
to investigate the cause of the deprivation
of life could by itself raise an issue under
article 2 of the Convention."to undertake
an investigation into certain kinds of deaths."

The
case of Amin, makes clear, however that,
"The state's duty to investigate is secondary
to the duties not to take life unlawfully and
to protect life in the sense that it only arises
where a death has occurred or life=threatending
injuries have occurred" (para 31)



To
read about what is required to states to fulfil
the procedural obligation to hold an investigation,
and to find out what deaths it applies to, click
here

Article
2 of ECHR

1

Everyone's
right to life shall be protected by law. No one
shall be deprived of his life intentionally save
in the execution of a sentence of a court following
his conviction of a crime for which this penalty
is provided by law.

2

Deprivation
of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in
contravention of this article when it results
from the use of force which is no more than absolutely
necessary:



in
defence of any person from unlawful violence;



in order to effect a lawful arrest or to
prevent escape of a person lawfully detained



in
action lawfully taken for the purpose of
quelling a riot or insurrection.